‘Tis the season for food, family – and photos! (Okay, presents too, but that ruins the alliteration we were going for…)

This holiday season, we want to make sure you take the best photos possible. Of course, this might be a little self-serving (we’d love for your best photos to wind up on Collage.com photo products), but there’s no better time than the holidays to get photos with distant friends and family you don’t see often.

Our top holiday photo tip? Get close! Nothing ruins a photo (especially when you’re going to print it) more than digital zooms on smartphone cameras. Use your feet to get close to whatever you want a photo of instead of zooming in. You might need to take a few more steps, but it’ll be worth it. And besides, what better time to get close to your family and friends (literally) than the holiday season?

Take a lot of photos. Now that the cost of taking a photo is basically free, given digital cameras that don’t use film, there’s no reason not to take a bunch of photos at a time. That way, if one shot doesn’t work out, you have other options to choose from. No, you don’t need to make everyone wait around to take them all. Try using your camera’s “burst mode” if it has one to take multiple photos at a time. (On an iPhone, just hold down the shutter button in the camera app).

Turn on a light! Make sure your photos are well-lit – and if they’re not, turn on a light (so long as it isn’t behind your subject, which will result in a backlit silhouette-type shot). Photos taken in low light typically look bad, and there’s not much you can do after the fact to brighten them without losing quality.

We hope you have a fun, safe, and photo-filled holiday season with your family and friends!